Misdialed 911 Thwarted Call for Help

A mother’s desperate cellular phone call for help after her family’s truck rolled down a snowy cliff Nov. 28 did not go through because she dialed “1-911” when trying to reach emergency operators, Los Angeles police said Thursday.

Dolores Lechuga survived at least one night after the deadly crash in Angeles National Forest, which also killed her husband and two young sons. She attempted to call for help from her cellular phone sometime during the early evening of Nov. 29, investigators said.

Instead of reaching an operator, she heard a recording that informed her she dialed a wrong number. That was the last call she attempted, according to phone records examined by police.

Her body was found Tuesday lying on a steep icy cliff in the forest, about 150 feet below the overturned truck. Inside the vehicle, a sheriff’s search and rescue team found the remains of her husband, Jose, and their sons Jeremy, 4, and Joseph, one month shy of his 6th birthday.

The family had been returning to their Highland Park home after spending Thanksgiving with relatives in Victorville. California Highway Patrol officials said they are still investigating why the truck went off the winding road.

“The message here is that 911 is universal,” said Lt. Anthony Alba, LAPD spokesman. “You don’t need to dial anything else, whether you’re on a cell phone or not.”

Although 911 calls from conventional telephones go to the local police, calls from cellular phones are directed to the California Highway Patrol.

Before trying to dial 911, Dolores Lechuga also made two attempts to call her relatives and two calls to directory assistance.

She misdialed the area code of her sister-in-law’s phone number, but at least one of those calls connected her to a business in Georgia. She had a brief conversation with the person who answered the phone, police said, and it is unclear why she did not ask for help.

On Thursday, Los Angeles police continued their investigation into why they did not initially take a report of the missing family when relatives first went to police.

Frantic with worry after the Lechugas failed to surface several days after Thanksgiving, family members turned to the police for help Dec. 4.

But a Los Angeles Police Department officer told relatives to file a report in Victorville, where the Lechugas were last seen. Victorville police turned the case over to LAPD missing persons detectives Monday after determining that they had jurisdiction because the family resided in Los Angeles. LAPD officials would not comment on the case, citing the internal investigation into the incident.

But Alba said that after the relatives were turned away, an LAPD supervisor called Victorville police to ensure that they were following up on the case. LAPD officers also assisted Victorville police with their investigation, he added.

Even if LAPD officers had taken the case earlier, they might not have known to look for the truck off Angeles Crest Highway, where it had tumbled 300 feet down a snow-covered embankment. Relatives said the family had never taken that highway during their regular trips between Los Angeles and Victorville. During their frantic search for the Lechugas throughout Southern California last week, family members said they never thought to look for them along that winding mountain road.

A sheriff’s search and rescue team eventually found the overturned truck after a tip from a family that had received help from the Lechugas when they got a flat tire on the highway Nov. 28.

The tragedy offers an important warning to travelers, especially those driving in bad winter weather, police said.

“If you’re going to take a different path than you normally take, please tell other people so they have an idea where you might be in case of an accident,” Alba said.

Relatives have set up a memorial fund to raise money for the family’s funerals. Donations to the Fund for the Lechuga Family can be sent to Highland Federal Bank, account number 0010104049, 6301 N. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, CA 90042.